Tours

Kecharis Monastery

Kecharis Monastery (11th-13th century) is located in Tsakhkadzor ski resort in Kotayk Region. The monastery was founded by Pahlavuni Prince to become a major religious and educational center of Armenia. Kecharis has undergone a major reconstruction and it is seen from the ski slopes. The main group of the complex consists of three churches, two chapels and a gavit, to the west of which, a few dozen meters away, there is another church with its own vestry at the side of a road leading to the forest. There still are many tombstones around these monuments. The main temple of Saint Grigor was erected by Grigor Magistros Pahlavuni (an Armenian Prince, linguist, scholar) in 1003. The church has an architecture typical of the feudalism period in Armenia. The interior of the temple is divided into three spaces by two pairs of wall-attached abutments. The central (and largest) space of the church is crowned by a broad cupola resting on spherical pendentives.